The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Lars Tiffany Files $1.4M Lawsuit Against UVA; Tiffany Says He Signed 3-Year Contract Extension

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: Lars Tiffany Files $1.4M Lawsuit Against UVA Tiffany Says He Signed 3-Year Contract Extension UVA Claims Tiffany Extension Is Void & Non Payable “Win Now Mentality��� – Portal Talent vs High Schoolers Has Transfer Portal Killed High School Recruiting? UVA’s Strength Coach Mike Curtis Headed To NBA Inside The ACC: The Great, Good, Bad & Ugly 50 Stories Per Month For Only $8 At JerryRatcliffe.com Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Scott German, Staff Writer at JerryRatcliffe.com, joined Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller were live on The Jerry & Jerry Show! The Jerry & Jerry Show airs live Tuesday from 10:15 am – 11:15 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Jerry & Jerry Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Tuesday morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for watching the Jerry and Jerry and Jerry Show. This program stars a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer in a household name in ACCC country. His name is Jerry Rackleff. He is the namesake of Jerry Rackleff.com. I'll tell you what, his website, Jerry Rackleff.com. It's $8 a month, and you get 50 stories per month that are fresh pieces of content, commentary analysis, and reporting on anything and everything UVA sports related. Today's program is a microcosm of what Jerry Rackleff is all about. Today's show is long-form content where we talk orange and blue in UVA sports for you, the viewer and listener, to sit back, to listen and help shape the discussion. If you have questions, put them in the feed, and we will relay them live on air to Jerry Rackleff himself. Judah Wickhauer is behind the camera. He's the Elmer's glue of the team.

The production may not show up in the box score, but we don't get to Victory Lane without Judah Wickhauer on the roster. Judah Wickhauer, if we can welcome the star of our show, Jerry Hootie Rackleaf to the program. My friend, a lot to cover for the dog days of June. It never slows down anymore, Jerry. I tell you, I think this trend started two or three years ago when it used to be sports writers would almost take the summer off because it was nothing going on. But nowadays, it's year-round. And there's not a day that goes by that something doesn't pop up UVA related in the,

the news for sure today's a perfect example large tiffany suing the university of virginia we'll get to that on the show we do have a special guest on set with us today jerry rackliff yeah i want to welcome i'm a good friend and our colleague scott german uh joined jerry rackliff dot com staff and and our little party here of four people and along with greg waters and john golden uh we have a nice team going and don't forget scottrackliff Scott Rackleff, a very important part of everything I've done. We've got a great team, and we all get along, and everything's fine, and produce good work. And so does Scott, German, who's a veteran, he's been doing this maybe as long, almost as long as I have.

That's a long time. Scott, welcome, man. Glad to get you're here joining us, and we've got some interesting stuff to talk about. do. Thank you, Hootie. It's an honor. I feel every time I'm with Jerry, I feel like I'm sitting beside royalty. I feel the same way with Hootie. 100%. You guys are too kind. I feel the absolute same way. Scott German. And regardless, whether we're in Charlottesville or on a road trip

somewhere, he's always recognized. And, you know, the old saying, you're known by the company you keep. And I don't think I could have better company than Jerry Ratcliffe. So it's an honor to be here. And Jerry, I followed your work and I admire your work. Thank you. And this is

truly an honor to be with you guys. Well, it's our pleasure. You mentioned to us before the show started your history with Jerry Rakliff. This is a great story. You know this story. You live this story. Mention to the viewers and listeners how long you've known Hootie and how you first met. I actually

was working over in the Valley for a small paper in the and I think I may predate Jerry by a year. I was covering UVA sports one year prior to Jerry arriving in Charlottesville. Yeah, I came here in 82, February of 82. My first UVA byline was in 1981. So there's not a lot of folks in Charlottesville or anywhere that can say they predate Jerry. I think you're the only one.

Maybe the only one. I think you're the only one on the UBAB. Yeah. Now, we'll say this. Houdi-Racliff, a handful of stops before he got to Charlottesville in the newspaper business. But you're talking direct ties to Charlottesville

and Charlottesville media. Right. Well, we're in Charlottesville. And have followed him ever since. I worked for him a little bit as a stringer. And I have just, there is no better representation of the University of Virginia than Jeremy.

Ray Rackleff. All right. Concur 100%. How about this question? As a guy who loves talking media, put in perspective, Scott and Hootie, the media landscape in the 80s and 90s in central Virginia in the Shandoah Valley. I mean, that's when media newspapers were everything.

You guys were the stars. Kind of the golden age of newspapers, I think, don't you? No, at least for a portraitor standpoint. Absolutely. I said I worked for a small paper in a Valley, Waynesboro, News, Virginia. Well, it was nothing. unusual to see the news Virginia the Stanton leader even some smaller papers than that on on press row every game and they that according to the editors of the

paper they depended on those stories because they drove circulation up so you felt like you were really doing something meaningful but far cry from that now, isn't it? Yeah, it's hard to find a newspaper on Press Row now. Essentially have one or two guys who represent newspapers. The rest of them are dot-combers or, I guess, or dot-commerce. Yeah, that's what they are. Nothing else.

Bloggers. Yeah, dot-commerce is what it is. I mean, basically it's one newspaper chain, no, maybe two newspaper chains for the entire Commonwealth. Yeah. I mean, it's Lee and it's the, the outfit from the daily press of the Virginia pilot. Yeah.

Right? Yeah. I think they're on by the Chicago. Chicago Tribune. Yeah. Times to be a change in Scott German. And not for good. Not for the best.

Okay. I like what he's doing over there. Yeah. Well, obviously I do too. But I like getting different perspectives. I love being out of town and picking up an out-of-town newspaper and reading. reading about just getting a different angle on sports. But now you, you know, if you can go online now, you can't buy a paper, a hard copy, but you go online to Daily Press in Norfolk or Newport News, the same story is in the new Virginia pilot and Richmond Times.

It is hard times and it's not for the better in my opinion. My brother and I, who he grew up in Williamsburg, reading the Daily Press, I looked forward to Warner Hessler's coverage of the Washington Redskins. I knew Warner. And that was the heyday for the 757. We'd fight over the frosted flakes to get the box score page because we love pouring through the agate section. Those were good times. Oh, yeah.

That used to be a big deal that all across America was people would get the scoreboard page and pour over box scores and statistics and all that stuff. Good luck finding one of those these days. Can't find one of those at all. We got Scott German, ladies and gentlemen, a fantastic addition to Jerry Ratcliffe.com. He's got a fantastic story on Jerry Ratcliffe.com, comparing and contrasting the transfer portal to high school football.

And ladies and gentlemen, I very much encourage you to read it. The headline is, has Whidnau mentality changed the outlook on recruiting the Portal versus Blue Chippers of High School football. We'll get to that. We've got to talk the story that's driving traffic yesterday. Lars Tiffany Hoots and Scott German, a lawsuit. We knew it was coming. I was told the week that Lars was fired,

I guess is the best terminology now that we learned a little bit more about the story. and I was going to talk to Lars that Thursday or Friday had it set up through a source of mine and that's when an attorney got involved and the interviews immediately vanished as things like that happened when attorneys get involved but we heard at that time that there was going to be a law lawsuit and I guess people just kind of forgot about it.

It's been a few weeks ago now and then it popped up yesterday. $1.4 million is what he's seeking in compensation for a three-year, what he considered a contract that he signed and returned to the university and then was asked to rescind it by the deputy AD over there. Richer, I think is his name. It was told by Carla Williams to hold off on that deal until the season was over to see what happened. And we saw what happened. They won the ACC tournament, and they were summarily dismissed in an upset by Georgetown in the first round.

In the next couple of days, he was let go, essentially. And now we're I guess it'll be in litigation and my guess is it'll probably be settled out of court. 100%. So settle out of court, we won't know the amount. He'll get some kind of lump sum, probably a little bit less than the $1.4 million.

And the play UBA will have is we can drag this out as long as possible. It's going to cost you a boatload of money and attorney fees. And even if you are to get the $1.4 million, by the time you rack up your attorney fees, it's going to be a lot less. Let's hedge the risk and cut the money. accord and we'll give you this much money for it to go away and then you'll have a non-disclosure agreement that you can never talk about this ever again that's the world we live that's probably

how it's going to play out sky i have a lot of questions for you scott germann your your your take on all this my take is it is just a big screw up uh on uva's part i think that juda said it well is that the devil's into details and someone dropped the ball on this and uh and i'm also wondering why it even went to this point. If there's going to be a settlement out of court and the university is prepared for that, why would you just not do that up front instead of letting this play out in the media?

Well, we heard it if it does go to court that he has requested a jury trial and if that would be the case, I think a jury would probably side with with Coach Tiffany. I think so. The human versus the institution? Yeah.

When there's a documented trail of the contract being sent back, I mean, UVA is pretty much trying to win a technicality argument here. Yeah, their loophole apparently is that Tiffany and his attorney, agent, brought up the proposal of a fourth year added to the three-year deal. and they considered that a counteroffer, which Lars agent says to scop that. It was not a counteroffer. It was just a question.

And I don't know, if I were the judge sitting in front of that, I think I'd have a hard time deciding with UVA on that one. What do you think, Scott, General? I think that if that trial would, if that would go to trial, the only chance UVA would have of winning that, as the FET trial were moved to Alaska.

That would anywhere... It would... It seems like to us, viewers and listeners, that the University of Virginia used the technicality or a potential technicality of Lars Tiffany's agent asking for a fourth year being added to a three-year contract extension. An extension presented by the Athletic Department

to Lars Tiffany, the agent said maybe four years, instead of three. UVA then used that as an opportunity to say, oh, you're renegotiating, so our offer, the three-year extension is now no longer valid. And because it's no longer valid, we're halfway through the season, the season started in tumultuous fashion.

So now we're going to wait to see how the season plays out. The season ended with an upset loss to Georgetown in the NCAA tournament. They said, we're not going to renew your contract now, and Lars Tiffany said, hey, wait a minute. I thought I had a three-year contract extension. here, now you're saying I got nothing and I'm unceremoniously fired. Yeah. And now Lars Tiffany, deservingly so, wants to get paid, Hootie.

I can't blame him. I mean, apparently he did what they asked him to do in terms of returning the whatever document it was that they sent him. and UVA has the right to fire a coach if they feel like that things aren't what they were expecting. So certainly that part weighs in their favor that you can fire any coach for whatever reason I think that you want if you don't feel like they're meeting your expectations. but still legally, it appears that he did everything he was supposed to do. And, you know, speaking of contracts, this is a story that's gaining, I've seen it on social media, traction on the interwebs and on social media,

maybe a contract not in play for this football game in Brazil. We've heard reports of that. There's reports out of Raleigh that NC State has produced copies of their documents, of their contract signed with the company that was sponsoring the game in Brazil. But there has been requests for Virginia's copy of that document, and allegedly none exists, which sounds really bizarre to me that if you're a major institution and you're playing. a game in a foreign country and

you've got all this money on the line and all this other stuff that you've agreed to that you wouldn't have signed a contract? Now, maybe that's not accurate. I don't know, but that's the reports that the UVA could

not come up with a copy of that contract. If that's the case, that's a major foul. That's a major screw up. Scott, Jermann, you jump in here. The PAC, the NC State sports website, PAC power 247, found a contract through a FOIA request. Other media in town, other side of the mountain, have FOIA looking for that contract,

and the contract was not presented to that. So the talk is media out of Raleigh that perhaps the University of Virginia does not have a contract with this third party that was going to coordinate a game in Brazil, the season opener against the Wolfback. Why that is crucial is because that game ended up getting canceled, which should have yielded or may still yield the University of Virginia a sizable payday because the game never materialized. If there's no contract, maybe that payout doesn't happen. And I think it's gone beyond alleged no contract. The last statement that I read that UVA had issued was that there was

there were no contract or they have no record of a contract. So that's about as clear as you can you can make it. And again, if that is true, that's just another, you know, snafu in the paperwork. Yeah. Which is now becoming, you know, becoming a habit. Well, when it rains a pores. Yeah.

It sounds like a few days. It sounds like a few days. Yeah, when it rains a force. And I guess the reason, the importance of this is like Hooty said, there was a clause that if the game didn't go, didn't get played, both schools would get a couple of million dollars. Somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million.

And if Virginia didn't sign the contract, again, there you go, they're not going to, they're not obligated to pay them. And it's important to highlight. There's some games that UBA plays at Scott Stadium where they're not making that much money. So a one and a half to $2 million payday is a great payday. And college athletics are right now, as Hootie Rackcliffe at Jerry Racklip.com highlighted,

the Louisville Athletic Department, in this past year, was it 30 million in the red? Yes. 30 million in the red. So we're talking a sizable payday for college sports here. You want to dot the eyes and cross the T's on these two storylines hoots? Yeah, well, you know, I think the basketball team, according to one report, I read, I can't remember where it was, but I think it was somewhere, well, I don't know. I can't remember where it came from, maybe another school.

But I think the basketball team's getting up a $2 million payday to play in the Bahamas in the battle for Atlantis. I saw that. And so those are sizable paydays that you can't afford to blow off. I mean, even if you have a sellout at a home game in football, you're probably looking at $1.5 million. something like that. Yeah, I think we didn't have to have a sellout. You'd have to have a sellout to reach $1.5 million.

Right. And we haven't had a lot of those. Hadn't been many of those. No, did the four state game sell out? I don't think it did. The game that went into time, it did not sell out. No, it was. So the last sellout was Norder Dane

when Jay Wolfo came in as a backup quarterback for Brennan Armstrong? I'm not even sure that was a sellout. That didn't sell out? Was the sellout then prior to that, count? That was a sellout. I was at that one. Yeah, that was definitely a sellout. I think that was

more than a sellout. That was fire marshal. Yeah, I think the fire marshal might have been on vacation. I think there were a few 60,000 attendance during the early Albuyer years here. And then I don't think they've come close to that since. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts, put them in the feed. Jason Hampshire's watching

the program. Donald Foley is watching the program. Got folks in Maryland. Eastern Tennessee, Southwestern Virginia, Northern Virginia, the Valley, Richmond, the 757 on the feed right now. South Carolina, North Carolina on the feed will highlight some of the viewers and listeners that are watching the show right now. Bob Yarborough, James Watson, Conan Owen, Rob Neal, all watching the program right now. This is a very pointed question here. Sounds like someone may be getting fired because of this. Well, I mean, if you're costing the university millions of dollars,

by not signing contracts or not seeing the contracts are signed, there's something out of plaque. I mean, where does the buck stop on that sort of thing? And in a time when every athletic program in the nation is struggling to just be in the black, finishing the black, and you're making mistakes that's bleeding money. I mean, somebody needs to answer to that.

Yeah, I mean, that's a huge financial hit. Jerry, you run a company. Would that be a fireable offense to an employee of yours? Now, a million point five is probably not the great analogy, but if it was a significant hit to your, business is that so the person who's doing the contracts for this company is me and if I did something like that I'd probably fire myself you're 100% right 100% right that would be that would be crippling for any business you're 100% right this comment comes in here it seems like they're

trying to drag and this one's from richmond virginia Jennifer watches the program in richmond virginia she watches at her law firm all the time she seems it's uh there it seems like they're trying to drag large tiffany's name through the mud here why would they be do that to a coach that has brought so much success to a school that he proudly has served? That's a good question. And I don't have an answer for that because Lars Tiffany was incredibly highly respected. I've never heard anybody say anything bad about Lars Tiffany. And I can't claim to be a lacrosse officianto by any stretch, but I know a lot of people who are and they think the world of him and the way he comes.

conducted himself and represented the university and his players and everything else. But, you know, I guess everybody runs into somebody that doesn't like the way you're doing things and they can try to besmirch your reputation or whatever. But I don't know why they would be trying to drag his name through the mind. I mean, I don't think that's going to help you win a court case by dragging his name through the mud, because particularly if it would happen to go to a jury trial, because I think people would be sympathetic with a coach who's been highly successful. A lot of lacrosse programs out there would kill for a guy who's won two national championships

and been to two other final fours. Who won the ACC championship in the year he got fired? And beaten number one Notre Dame twice. and nobody else did until the final four. But it's a good question, Jennifer, and I wish I had a better answer. But I'm stumped by that myself. And from my sources that are very knowledgeable in UVA lacrosse, the trajectory was hitting up.

Yeah, a young team. Yeah. that, you know, kind of fell on their face against Georgetown, made an early exit, but next year was very promising. That's a good recruiting class. Good recruiting class, so it doesn't all add up. The conspiracy part of me says, is this an opportunity for Carla to save some money? and you know you replace a coach and hire another coach that's making 40% less. Yeah, you got a coach on the cheap and a coach that was willing to be a fundraiser,

which Lars didn't necessarily gravitate to. Right. Same could be said for baseball with Coach O'Connor exiting and bringing in Coach Pollard. So, you know, there's always more to a story once you start digging a little. 100%. And it seems like, and what Scott Germans alluding to, it seems like Carla Williams, the athletic director, who realizes her bread is buttered with football, with men's basketball, and the resources are going to be allocated to football and the two basketball programs, is looking to cut costs with the Olympic non-revenue sports. And one of the top line items with each of

these programs is the head coach. And if you're able to save 40% roughly on what you're allocating to a head coach, and then that head coach is willing to do more for, less. That's basically what Cassisi is going to do. He's expected to do more work for less money. Yeah. And Scott and I were talking about this yesterday is that Carl is doing pretty much what she has to do. And we can get into this later in the show, but something's going to change in the next five years, unless Congress acts to kill the momentum of some of these. proposed re-enalignments down the road,

but she's doing everything she can and has to do, and I'm sure it's tough decisions on her part, to prepare Virginia for what's coming. If Virginia's forced to go to the SEC or the Big Ten or a major conglomerate

merger of those two conferences into a super conference which is the way that it's heading right now. Yeah. I mean then she's got to get Virginia in position of where they're attractive enough

to get an invitation or they'll get left out in the cold. I think we were talking yesterday that from what our sources are saying that UVA is likely to get an invite to the SEC and I think she is doing her job,

making the basketball program, the football program, as attractive as they can possibly be, because I don't think the SEC is looking to invite Virginia into the conference if Virginia is going to be the old Vantibelt. Vandibald has vastly improved their football program in the last few years, but for years, they were the doormat of the conference, and they're not looking to invite Virginia in to be the new doormat. The Miami president came out this week.

Miami's been silent about all this stuff, unlike Florida State, but Miami has been pretty silent up until now. Their president came out and said, and they had never spoken about leaving the ACC, but they're in the same position as Virginia. They're trying to position themselves for what's coming if it does come into realization. And he said, we are playing for our next contract,

which makes total sense because the TV deals are going to be renegotiated in 2013. And if you'll recall, when Texas and Oklahoma joined the SEC and shocked everybody and started all this madness to begin with. Came out of nowhere. They announced that they were going to join the SEC

two years before they actually joined the SEC and don't think that they just did it on the spur of the moment. They were talking about it long before that. So people are talking now about what's going to happen in 2013,

2013. And that's why Carla Williams is doing everything she can to position Virginia because some people going to be left out. 100%. Jeremy Wilson is watching in the eastern Tennessee.

Three sides to every story. Yours, mine, and the truth, he says. This question comes from Brian who's watching in southwestern Virginia. I watch a show every week, guys. The show is fantastic. You've alluded to in previous shows, the University of Virginia

joined the Southeastern conference. Can you explain to me why the SEC would want UVA? It's not like Charlottesville's a big-time TV market. And really, football outside of one year, has struggled. Why is UVA in a piece? team for the SEC. Thank you for the show. Love the show. Well, the SEC says they don't want to expand, but we know that's, they can say

anything they want. But if Congress doesn't stop this, and they very well may, depending on what they do here in the next few weeks, they can, they can shut it all down and nobody will expand anymore. No conference will be allowed to be span, including the ACC. And there'll be other guidelines that will open up TV markets. It won't just be ESPN controlling everything. The SEC, from what we hear, likes Virginia and they like North Carolina, which I think would probably go as a package deal from what we hear,

because they both have really good athletic programs, not just football and basketball, but North Carolina, I think, is winning the Directors Cup, Virginia's fourth, I believe. New sets of TVIs in a market that they don't dominate in North Carolina and Virginia. Certainly they have SEC fans in this part of the country, but if you're the SEC and you're, that's a big part of it. You're looking at two schools that have great academics are well thought of, an unofficial ivy, I guess, or maybe they're an official ivy now.

They call them a new ivy. A new ivy. Yeah. Pretty good fan bases. again the TV thing is a big part of it I think those are the major reasons right there and it's just a new territory for them to expand into that I mean where else are they going to go I think they also certainly like Clemson Florida State we think I think.

But I don't know. I think Virginia fans, if they have to go to one of those two conferences, I think they have a lot more in common with the SEC than the Big Ten. If you'll talk, I have a lot of friends who are Maryland fans and they rue the day that Maryland left for the Big Ten. They have no interest. There's no rivalries with Big Ten schools. There's not a lot of interest.

interest. Maryland has trouble competing in that league. The travel is ridiculous, just like it is with ACC. But I just think a lot of Maryland fans that I know still watch ACC games. They'll watch Maryland play whoever they're playing, but generally they don't sit and watch Big Ten games. They watch ACC games because they grew up like we did as an ACC fan that's part of your DNA and that's the best answer I can get yeah I agree

with Jerry I think Virginia and North Carolina are extremely attractive to the SEC and your viewer said well Charlottesville doesn't bring a big market but they're looking at expanding their market from into the Carolinas which they do

currently right now South Carolina is the northernmost state North Carolina, Virginia would bring about 18 million potential viewers. Virginia would also bring with them to D.C. market. So they're very valuable in the sense of the TV contracts, and they're both great universities. They both would bring prestige to the SEC academically with great overall athletic programs.

You know, getting back to Carla, and I've been a critic of her for quite a while, but in this particular instance, I think she's doing what she's supposed to do and make the football program as attractive as possible. We won 11 games last year. Now the challenge is not to fall back to a 4-Wen team because that would undo all the goodwill of winning 11 games. So she's got a monumental job ahead of her. Right now, I feel she's doing a good job in making UVA and attract your product. I think it's important to emphasize, guys, the renewals may not even be a TV contract.

For example, NFL, the National Football League, signed a contract with Amazon Prime Video. The MLS has got a contract with Apple TV. like who's to say that Apple TV or Amazon Prime or even Netflix I mean Netflix has got boxing it's trying to getting into sports

you log into Netflix it's suggesting sports podcasts to you left and right what if the the contract renewal is one that's tied to streaming and not necessarily broadcast television or cable television and in that scenario

the size of a market is not as important it's the depth of the alumni base and the depth of the University of Virginia alumni base is far and wide. As well as North Carolina. Same. My son Scott is still upset because he's a Nationals fan.

He can't watch all the Nationals games because they're not on massing anymore. They have some other kind of a deal, right? Well, I think if you want all the Nationals game, he almost has to get the Major League Baseball pass, which ain't cheap. Right. Yeah, and that's basically what they're doing

is we talked about this a few weeks ago on the show. Why, you know, one man's opinion, you know, we were talking a few weeks ago, I would not be surprised if UVA sports, as they look to maximize revenue at every turn, says to their broadcasting partners, their AM radio partners,

that we're not going to give you the content anymore for you to broadcast on radio and then do some kind of revenue share with the advertising, that we're going to keep that content and do a paywall. So if people want to hear the broadcast, of the game, they're going to pay us $100 a season, $150 a season, and they'll get 11, maybe 12 games with the bowl, 13 games with the bowl game of broadcast through our internet gateway. The same stuff with know what Jerry Ratlap.com. They easily could do that.

I'm wondering why they haven't done it already. $150. It's a new season ticket. You've got to wonder how many people are actually listening? to a football game or a basketball game on the AM dial. I mean, it would be incredibly in today's technology. I mean, look at what we're doing here. On 27 social media platforms, five microphones, eight cameras. Imagine what a $15 billion in Dowell School can do.

Yeah. Well, they have their own studios and a staff. They already do it. Video directors and... Content creators. Content creators. Play-by-play guy, color guy. They already have it.

They all that. They could easily create the content and put it behind a paywall where if you want access to all the content, it's a $500 fee for the year. And if they get... I mean, Jesus, how many... How many you being sports fans would pay that? $500 in the year. I mean, is there $250,000 that would do that?

I would believe more than that. I mean, who do you might have a better idea to that? Yeah, I don't know. But they're scattered all over the country. Right? Is there 500,000 UVA sports fans that would pay $500? I mean, you're talking $250 million. That's a lot of money.

500,000 UBA sports fans paying $500 for a year past. Even if it's just $100, you still have a lot of money. Right. And they're starving for money. right now. And it's a perfect segue to keeping the momentum to what Scott German published today on Jerry Racklep.com to recruit the Blue Chipper High School Senior or to recruit the transfer portal. Do you want to set the who, what, when, where, why of your story for the viewers and listeners? Well, yeah, Jerry, I followed, and you probably did as well. I used to be just entrenched in following

high school recruiting. Same. high school signing day and football especially was should have been a holiday. It was Christmas. It was like an NFL draft day. So this is kind of disappointing

but it's the world we live in now is that it doesn't make a lot of sense for a school to invest a lot of resources, time, travel with their coaching staff to recruit the high school athlete.

it's you're valuing the you're weighing the potential of a high school athlete against the proven commodity of a transfer portal so I think

and I think UVA is I did some deep diving into the numbers they're using this transfer portal very effectively this current the 2026 roster is one of the most experienced rosters in college football and not only that they're one of the most productive rosters currently on the on the roster that we that we have now were fifth in the nation in tackles with 1613 this is from last season

fifth in the nation in SACs with 59, fifth in the nation with pressures on the quarterback, 364, second in the nation with 27 interceptions. Number one in the nation, and returning snaps. And returning snaps. For the collective team. Yeah.

You're not going to be that experience if you're relying on a roster of richer, freshman, and, yeah. Yeah, high school kids. You're just not. you're going to be, if lucky, you'll be half of those numbers. And taking a step further, throw it to you guys here. In a sport that is all about physicality, 21 or 22 or 23. I mean, good God, Chandler Morris was 25 years old.

Yeah. They had a kid that was in the safe with, I'm drawing a blank on his name, a young man that was a safety in the football team, got multiple knee injuries. He played for seven years. Seven years. It was a seventh year. Literally, Chandler Morris was the same age as Jaden Daniels, the starting quarterback of the Washington Commanders. Having in a sport that's all about physicality, having 21, 22, 23, 24, 25-year-olds versus 18-year-olds is a massive delta.

No question. I mean, those are grown men playing against guys who want to be grown men in most cases. if you're talking about a team that relies almost solely on high school recruiting. And I listened to a podcast somewhere I think it was down in Florida yesterday, and they were talking about how important it is to have great high school recruiting. I don't know that I agree with that. They said, well, Georgia Tech has 23 commitments already. So what?

I would much rather go out and get guys who have proven it on the collegiate level. They've developed their bodies. They've learned college playbooks. They've been in systems. They've seen it all. They've played against grown men. And they know what college football is all about. They know about discipline and training and how,

academics and everything else. You don't have to teach them that. They come ready, ready to go. I mean, if you're a college coach, why would you risk having to look at a 17-year-old high school player, 18-year-old high school player that you really don't know what kind of competition he's played against and have to look at him and project what that player is going to look like in a couple of years?

What's his body going to look like? What's his work ethic? What's his heart like? As opposed to looking at a player that's been in college for two or three years, that you've got hard facts. Phil. I don't see where there's any debating of that. I don't either.

I'm with you. And Rick Petino said building the St. John's programs, someone asked him, and Rick Petino's back, his program is backed by a multi-billionaire. That's how St. John's has been able to rebuild. a one-story program into rags to riches, if you may. And the media asked him, what are you doing, blue chip-wise,

high school recruiting wise? You guys, we don't look at high school players. We're going to reload with Transfer Portal. And that's what he's done. Take Ryan Odom. I mean, Ryan Odom is Transfer Portal. Ryan Odom's back-to-back rosters were complemented by professional athletes,

Grunlow and DeRitter, and then complimented by San Luis Tillis Hall, Thomas, all transfer reporters. One high school player. Chance Mallory.

One. The only one. And Chance Mallory is what? An anomaly almost. Yeah, he's definitely better than people gave him credit for. Yeah, he was under-recruited,

if you may. No question. Yeah, I mean, Chance Mallory is a starting point guard and the blue bloods. I mean, he's produced more than a lot of five stars. 100%.

100%. And that guy's going to have a breakout season. But that's an anomaly. Yeah. Take it even the non-revenue sports. Men's soccer, internationals everywhere. Men's tennis, internationals everywhere. Squash the program.

I follow closely the men's team. International is everywhere. Some golfers? Golfers? Yeah. I mean, it's not the day, and this is a conference that's been put on the feed. This is perfect for scouts.

George Sherman and Hooney-Rackliff. This is from Donald Foley. Donald Foley is asking on the feed, how do you take a guy, bring attention to a UVA coach about an outstanding high school player that would be a good fit for one of the programs, but has gone unnoticed so far and he's watching at Bassett, Virginia? Email one of the coaches? My response to almost that is like, good luck. Yeah, good luck. Yeah. Bassett, Virginia, high school senior, who's gone, unnoticed in the era of the internet? Yeah, I would think that some college coach would have stumbled upon. Some kids do fall through the price.

They do, but this is a point I tried to make in my column, too. This is the downside. This is a good segue into that. This is the downside of the portal is that the traditional recruiting classes, high school recruiting classes are shrinking. 100%. What Hootie just said Georgia Tech had 23 high school recruits, I'm thinking

that just makes no sense. So with the high school classes shrinking from what used to be an average class was 20, 25, maybe sometimes 30 high school players, they're down to

a handful. So what that to me is these kids that are I like to call them developmental or in betweeners, they're not going to get a chance. No. There's not going to be a roster spot to bring a three-star recruit on and think that you've, you're going to have two or three years to develop that player. There's just going to be, there's not going to be any roster spots. The kid from back, the high school kid from

basket, Bassett is probably going to have to go D2 or D3. Well, and maybe that's the path now. That's the path. The path could be, you know, Fort Qudy Military Academy, postgraduate, John Schumet, Fletcher Erritt, late Great Fletcher Erich, produced a ton of talent. Maybe the path is community college, talented athletic departments in some community colleges, or maybe it's to go, you know, a lower level D1, prove yourself. Go to a group of six school. Yeah. Prove yourself and then go.

Yeah. Is that the path? I think that's the only path. Yeah. But, yeah, I would think if that kid is good, he probably should be going to some of these football camps. at the universities where he feels like he might have a chance to, you know, catch a coach's eye. It doesn't have to be UVA or it could be East Carolina or Western Carolina or. William and Mary.

William and Mary, he has the grades. I mean, JMU, there's a viewer and listener. Liberty. Yeah. Yeah. Viewer and listener that's watching the program that's a huge JMU fan. I would imagine his concern is any of the talent that produces at JMU, which is an incredible awesome football program is just going to get cherry picked by one of the power conference programs.

That's what's happening. JMU is going to become the minor league for the power conference. The minor leagues. Yeah. Go there. You prove yourself like you do at AAA. You do well at AAA and you get the call up. A lot of their rosters now in Los Angeles, right?

From last year. Yeah, they followed the coach. The coach. The UCLA. Yeah. Comments coming in here. this seems like something you guys could talk about with Mike Curtis

the strength coach leaving for the NBA and the value for strength programs as other schools have adults playing football with some having high schoolers playing college football Mike Curtis, story is something you posted on Jerry Rackleth.com Yeah, and Michael was considered one of the best

strength and condition coaches in America. No question about it. He was here for 17 years and developed so many basketball players for Virginia, guys like Jay Huff, really built him into a man. But, and he'll be sorely missed,

but, you know, there's a million strength and conditioning coaches out there. I'm sure they'll find a good replacement for him if they haven't already. But certainly, Mike, having been in the NBA, and having been a college player himself at Virginia, knew everything about UVA and college basketball and what it takes to get to the next level that he could relay to the guys, the kids he worked with. And he may have, Mike, and I've known Mike as long as you have.

He may have felt like this was a challenge he needed. He'd done about as much as he could at UVA. I don't know how much of his decision was based on finances, but he's going into a professional league where he could probably significantly increase his earnings. Where in Virginia, again, he falls under the umbrella where Carla Williams is trying to maintain expenses. There's only so much he can pay. So he's probably at a career, at a stage in his career where he's, you know, you can't do a lot more at Virginia, and this opens up more opportunities for him.

A lot of money in the NBA. A lot of money. A lot of money. For the sake of a talk show, for the sake of a talk show, all play the devil's advocate role. The devil's advocate role for this is University of Virginia, alumni, a lot of money. Kristen Norman was watching the program earlier today. Kristen Norman and Scott Wagner, $5 million donation to UVA sports. Right.

An incredible donation. Yeah, incredible. Chris and Norman and Scott Wagner, I know very well. Your generosity was incredibly impressive. Your commitment to UVA sports incredibly impressive. Tip of the cap again for you guys. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Yeah, that's very meaningful. Very meaningful. So devil's advocate, say give a talk show. UVA, wealthy, a lot of wealthy alumni. Money is potentially plentiful for football and men's basketball. money equates to success and transfer portal pay to play maybe for UVA sports who's struggle to compete in football and men's basketball specifically that this transfer portal pay to play go after the adult talent is the way that UVA is

going to close the gap with the quote-unquote blue bloods of college sports if I were a UVA fan I would totally embrace the transfer portal and the NIL I know it wasn't popular when it first came into being, but it's Virginia's way to compete on a level playing field with as level as it can be. I mean, there are some schools that have ridiculous amounts of money they're throwing out, but this gives Virginia a chance. And you can look around the ACC's got. We could name off of almost half the... the conference that's not making that kind of financial commitment and we see what's happened to their athletic programs they're failing and unless they go all in like Virginia did they're not you can't

make up that ground and I certainly can't do it through high school recruit you can't and we've talked you can't be you can't have one foot in one foot out it's not it won't work no and and I think that the UVA alumni have have made a statement that they are okay with this. They've only stepped up. They've stepped up. And why would they not be? Yeah.

Because, again, they've realized you can't just have a foot in. And I think the old saying years ago was you can't be Harvard Monday through Friday in Alabama on Saturday. you've either got to play with 100% you're 100% in or else you need to maybe decide this isn't the conference we need to play in this isn't the level of competition we need to play every week in week out yeah we can point to this look at virginia tech what's happening with them it wasn't until a massive donation i think they got a couple hundred million dollars a couple of weeks ago they got a 75 million dollar gift and one gift. One gift. In totality, I think that number is eclips 200, amongst a handful of gifts.

But Virginia Tech was not all in. In Virginia Tech, their football program has gone from riches to racks, the wrong way. I mean, they were Valley Hood and atop the conference now to a doormat. Now they're looking to recover with the James Franklin hire. And, I mean, think about what Virginia Tech has going on. Athletic director is going out. I hired a new AD yesterday. That's right.

President's going out. Yeah. Board of Visitors' head is going out. The three most important positions at the Virginia Tech are all flipping at the same time. This is all tied to money. And now the Hokies are trying to go all in on money because they know they need to compete. Let's see what happens with that. They saw what happened at Virginia?

I think the question that Virginia Tech might be how sustainable. is it long term? I mean, an infusion of money now, but is that going to be something they can count on year after year, you know? You can at Virginia because they have the alumni

base to do that. Well, and with the non-revenue sports, the expectation is the non-revenue sports will be endowed, so they're going to try to get a base of money and use it in an endowment. standpoint where it's going to grow through strategic investment and that would be the engine to keep the program on the positive potentially in perpetuity. First endowed program at the University of Virginia Athletic Department was squash.

And now that's kind of a model, if you may, for some of the other schools, the other programs within the athletic department. It's wild right now, Scott, Jern. Yeah, sure. And we're talking, I think, Jerry, and I talked recently about the endowments, for non-revenue sport, doesn't that make sense that that's the way it should be? Well, now it does. Now, that if you aren't able to sustain your program through television contracts, gate attendance, then why is it up to the university to provide scholars?

To flow here. But if you can reach that goal through endowments, then that's the way I think it should be. And that's obviously the way it's going. Yeah. As successful as Virginia has been the last couple of years, some of the other bigger schools like Michigan and some of the really big schools with huge alumni bases are trying to up the answer. now. They're projecting that some football rosters in the next couple of years are going to be $50 million. I mean, that's beyond mind-boggling. But, you know, it's going to be interesting to watch and see what happens here in Congress over the next few weeks, whether they put the

clamps down on all this and bring some reality back to college sports or not, because they want I think the bill that they're trying to move through now would stop all expansion. In every conference, there would be no more. There would never be a super conference like they're talking about. It would open up the TV markets where everybody could compete instead of just ESPN. There'd be a cap on portal money. The transfer or NIL money. the transfer portal, you'd get one free transfer,

and then unless your coach left or something, if you transfer it a second time, you have to sit out like the old days. Right. They're trying to bring some sense back into college athletics because it's just spiraling out of control, and there's no end to it. I mean, $50 million for a college football roster.

$15,17% of an NFL salary cap. The NFL salary cap for the first time surpassed $300 million per team, and that's this year. So $50 million to hell of a lot of money, ladies and gentlemen, for a college football roster. I mean, Chandler Morris, the rumor was, what, $1.3 million for Chandler Morrison compensation this past season for a quarterback, for one player, folks.

I believe that's true. And that was on the cheap, Ben. I was on the cheap. Without question on the chief. Look at the Duke quarterback. What the Duke quarterback was able to do. Two-year contract, break the contract with Duke. I mean, that's a perfect example.

Comments continue to come in. William McChessie's watching the program. You've got a lot of legacy media watching us on the program right now. I see reporters from some of the legacy outlets watching the show. If you have any comments, put them in the feed. We'll relay them live on air. James Watson says he's a Wahoo, UVA grad. Go for it.

Keep being an innovator is what he's saying with the program. Jeremy Wilson, Eastern Tennessee says, can Virginia Tech do this every year? That's going to be the challenge for Virginia Tech. That's what Scott German alluded to with some of this fundraising that's going on. Jeremy Hu, Jeremy Ronica is watching the program. He's a diehard UVA fan. College Athletics is now just semi-pro. It's just a semi-pro system.

The game is totally ruined, is what Jeremy Hu is saying. No, it's not even semi-pro anymore. It's pro. Yeah. Some of these guys are making more than they can make in professional sports. That's one reason you're seeing more guys stay out of the draft and stuff. They can make more money playing in college than they could as a free agent in football or basketball. Yeah. This isn't, I agree with Jerry. This isn't semi-professional sports. This is professional.

sports at a minor league level. Think AA baseball, AAA baseball. They're not semi-professionals. They're professional athletes trying to reach the top level of their sport. This is what when you're paying an athlete in college to try to, you know, you're paying him while he's trying to reach the NFL or trying to reach the NBA. So nothing semi-professional about this anymore. Not anymore. Those days are gone. That curtain has been pulled back. Well, and you know, I've been watching UVA since I was knee-high to my dad who went to UVA. 11-win football season, beat Missouri in a legitimate bowl game, basketball team wins 30 games, maybe underachieved a little bit in the NCAA tournament.

Still, great year. Yeah. The success of all these. other nine. Ran into the wrong team. Ran into the wrong team at the wrong time. Yeah. Had a professional basketball player on the other team. They ran into a bustle. Is that one of the best years in UVA sports history?

It was. Particularly all around. Across the board. Yeah. Top five of the Directors Cup it looks like. Yeah. Football and basketball. I mean, you'd be hard pressed to go back and find many years

where the football and basketball team, attained the heights that these two did this year. Yeah. I mean, if 30, if we're very rare. If we said today, you'll get 11 wins and 30 wins, every fan would take it. And they wouldn't care how you got it. Yeah, they wouldn't care how you got it. And this is, I hate to say this, this is how UVA can do it.

UVA is not going to do it the old, could not do it the old-fashioned way. It wasn't a level playing. It wasn't a level playing, no. Not if they wanted to prioritize the academic. like they wanted to. Right. What you said, Harvard during the week in Alabama on the weekend. You can't do that.

Yeah, and Jerry and I had a conversation with, this might surprise people. We had a conversation with a couple of football transfers. And believe it or not, they still said that the transfer portal, a lot of players still value the educational opportunity that UVA had. And I know that might be contradictory a little bit about, oh, they're all they want to do is who's come here, they're going to go to the school that pays them most money. But according to what we were told by a couple of portal players, they weighed that opportunity of taking some meaningful classes,

getting into some postgraduate classes. They took that brochures. They do. And UVA also made it very clear to them on their recruiting visit, whether that was in person or on Zoom, that they would be, they would be, it would be important priority that would be placed on, they would be going to class, taking class of some type. And that that wasn't something that was a negative, that most of the transfer portal players

were looking for those opportunities. The fabulous Wendy Rackleff was watching the program, and she says, I absolutely love seeing Scott German join the discussion. Thank you, Wendy. College sports needs to be reigned in. They are ruining college sports right now. I'm responding to her while talking. Good to see you on the show, exclamation points.

Sent to her right there. Thank you, Wendy, for watching the program. An hour and 12 minutes flies by when you're having fun. We're already at 1125. I told Scott it would fly by. It's literally been an hour of 12 minutes. Closing thoughts, Scott, Ger. anywhere you want to go anything that's in that notebook of yours one of the things i love about

these gentlemen here is they got the uh took out the loose leaf paper scott germans also brought a folder with him right here i like that scott i i i i'm sports writer's best friend yeah that's right yeah hoody's one of the last uh the mohiggins that sets at a game and actually uses uh pen in a notepad and keeps his own stats i keep my own play by play i love that um keep my own notes from you know as i said I'm old school. This took a little bit getting used to, but I love sports, and I

want Virginia to be competitive, and if this is the way, the path that they can be competitive, then I'm all in on it. That's how I feel. It took me a while to get to that point. Initially, I absolutely hated it. Yeah, I thought when this,

this is a great time to jump out, to get out and go to the beach and listen to the games on the radio, would not really be that passionate. But that didn't last well. That's how I was. That's literally, I felt disenchanted.

But then I bleed orange and blue so much that it pulled me back in. Then they had success. Then finally I gave it a chance. And when I gave it a chance, like you're saying, I'm like, oh, this really could be how they start winning. Because of the depth of wealth and the

alumni. And it's okay. It's just, it's finding a way to be competitive. Right. That's literally how old. Hootie Wreck, shows yours, my friend. Shows always yours. Yeah, well, you know, we've seen the change. And, I mean, how long have we set,

did we sit there and watch Virginia team struggle? At least the amount of wins in three years under Tony Elliott. And well before that. In power football, yeah. It was awful. Sometimes it was, yeah, it was miserable. covering games because the same thing every week, Scott. You'd go to the locker room, well, you can't go in the locker room anymore,

but you'd go down to the interview room, and the coach would be bummed out. He wouldn't want to talk, really. And he was trying not to make excuses, and the players were bummed out. They didn't want to talk. Some of them wouldn't even show up. It was miserable covering a team that's losing. He got crushed, five hours of your day. And we're both college football fans.

We questioned whether it was even, it wasn't fun going to the stadium. It wasn't fun watching the game as a diehard fanatic. Right. I mean, how many times over that 12, 14-year period of time that I had to deal with the Virginia Tech UVA game and all the trash talk and going into the game like 12 years of dealing with this? Yeah. It's miserable.

Yeah. Going around the ACC a lot. to the various schools and talking to other fans and writers and media and stuff. The perception of Virginia during all that time was that Virginia didn't give a flip about football. And how could you argue that they did? Because they didn't show it. It's not that way anymore. It's like Scott said when the guys came in and told them that they'd gotten that gift,

They're down the recruiting board The recruiting board got thrown aside And all of a sudden All these other players are in Adults You're bringing in the big boys You're bringing in a 25-year-old quarterback Yeah

I mean that's what happened Yeah And they won 11 games And now they got two starting quarterbacks Two quarterbacks that were starting in power football Now Virginia can play play with anybody. Football or basketball.

They don't have to worry about going out there and getting their brains to beat in every week. Right. We're competitive with probably any team in the country. Yeah. I can't think of anybody that they couldn't play with. They might not be able to beat them, but they could at least compete against them. I mean, they beat a Missouri team that was middle to upper pack in the Southeastern Conference on national television. Was it the Gator Bowl? Gator Bowl. And the Gator Bowl, a legit bowl.

this wasn't a crappy bowl this was a legit bowl and then they took their starting quarterback yeah yeah which made it even sweeter it's unbelievable guys Scott German crushed it on the show you should come back

we'd be glad to you thank you very much thank you dear absolutely hell of a job from Scott German on the Jerry rackliff dot com team this fan's the star of the show his name is Jerry Hoody Ratcliffe he's a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer this guy's got more awards and accolades

he must have two rooms for all his trophies and accolates. He's got so many awards. They're actually sitting in a box. Actually, I knew he would say that. They would sit in a box. He's got that many awards and accolades. He needs an entire garage for them, ladies and gentlemen. Jerry Rackleff, it's $8 a month for Jerry Rackcliffe.com.

It's the price of a cup of coffee. You get about 50 stories a month. It's just an absolute no-brainer. Judah Wickcar is behind the camera. He's going to be working hard here. As the I Love Seville Show is up 59 minutes. The moon, man. Thank you for watching Jerry Rackliff.

The Jerry and Jerry Show starring Jerry Rackleff. So long, everybody. That was awesome. Good time. All you.